University of Oklahoma sociology professor Samuel L. Perry examined two sets of data collected in 2006 and 2012 as a part of the Portraits of American Life Study that included the porn-watching, church-attending, and praying habits of 1,314 adults. Perry discovered that people who watch porn become less religious over time, at least in terms of the number of times they pray or attend a religious service. Nothing terribly groundbreaking there.

However, there was an interesting exception: People who watched porn at least once a week for six years became more religious, regardless of variables like age and gender. Perry concludes that the connection likely has something to do with shame.

Recommended Video

Entertainment

'American Horror Story's New Season Makes Terrifying Connections to Current Events

"These people may be saying something like, 'OK, God, I may be disobeying you in this area of my life, but look at all the religious stuff I'm doing over here!'," Perry told Thrillist.

Another possible conclusion from the correlation is viewing religion and porn as obsessive tendencies. "Some personality types tend to be compulsive about religious participation and these same folks may also be compulsive in other areas of their lives like pornography use," he said.

A third possibility is that watching porn just gets normalized. "It could be that those who use pornography at the highest frequencies are eventually able to separate religion and porn use in their minds to where it no longer causes a cognitive dissonance," he said. "Basically... they're so wedded to [porn] that it no longer makes them feel guilty and they just do it daily, like brushing their teeth or exercising."

Porn and god: seemingly at odds with one another. But it turns out, they're more like the peanut butter and jelly of shame.

Sign up here for our daily Thrillist email, and get your fix of the best in food/drink/fun.

Dustin Nelson is a News Writer with Thrillist. He holds a Guinness World Record, but has never met the fingernail lady. He’s written for Sports Illustrated, Men’s Journal, The Rumpus, and other digital wonderlands. Follow him @dlukenelson.